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Wheaton North figures out Marmion

Wheaton North ended its mini-tour of Suburban Christian Conference boys basketball teams with a 69-51 win over Marmion.

Coming off a 27-point victory over St. Francis, Wheaton North began Saturday's nonconference game slightly askew, a little due to Friday's margin and its all-Wheaton atmosphere, a lot due to Marmion's 1-2-2 zone defense.

"Probably a little bit of that, but it took us a little bit to sort of figure out their zone," said Falcons coach Dave Brackmann, addressing the early disparity. "It's something that we struggle with a little bit, but we're getting better and better at it. We battled back nicely and then took control in the third quarter."

After making 4 of 14 first-quarter field goals, the Falcons went 20 of 35 thereafter and won the rebound battle 33-19 in their first home game at Neibch Gym since Dec. 9.

Tied 20-20 with 4:05 left in the second quarter on a jumper by Marmion's Matt Fletcher, Wheaton North (10-3) went on an 11-0 run to enter halftime leading 31-20.

"We've lost two games (to Maine South and Naperville Central) playing against a 1-2-2 matchup zone so we've really tried to work on breaking zones," said Falcons forward Nick Traversa, who grabbed 10 rebounds and scored a game-high 18 points with two 3-pointers in that 11-0 run.

"We went to a three-out, two-in sort of thing and pass and cut, and just opened our shooters, just drive and kick. (Guard) Nick Jordan does a really good job of getting in the lane, opening it up for all the shooters."

Wheaton North's Kar Reng scored 16 points, including four 3-pointers. Jordan added 13 points.

"We knew they had shooters," Marmion coach Joe Currie said of a Falcons squad that made 8 of 19 three-point baskets, 42 percent. "We thought the biggest difference was when they got open they knocked them down."

Marmion (7-6) knocked Wheaton North at the outset, 6-foot-6 Evan Pickard and 6-7 Jake Esp helping the Cadets to a 13-5 head start.

"We've been waiting on that all season for him," Currie said of Pickard, who scored 14 points to join 15-point scorers Esp and Jordan Glasgow in double figures.

Glasgow hit a 3-pointer on his first shot of the third quarter to get within 33-23 of Wheaton North. The Falcons responded with unanswered inside baskets from Jordan and 6-7 Jake Heggeland and Reng's fourth 3-pointer for a 40-23 lead.

"We talked about starting the second half strong and sort of putting some doubt in their mind. We did," Brackmann said.

The closest Marmion got thereafter was 63-51 on a Glasgow jumper with 2:43 left in the game.

"That 11-0 run that they had right before half kind of overshadowed what we did in the first half," Glasgow said. "We did a lot of good things, but because we had a few mistakes in the last few minutes they were able to kind of pull away from us."

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